“Stefan Rappo is the photographer of emotion. He creates refined and understated images free of embellishment or sophisticated staging. A return to the natural state and the primacy of emotions. With a cinematic allure, his images are like short films, silent and poetic – odes to women. Most striking is the calm and serenity. The spectator, although held at a distance, infiltrates the intimacy of the play, a huis-clos where the palpable tensions play off each other to create a narration.

At 30 years of age, Stefan Rappo left Switzerland and his job as a designer and constructor of heavy forestry equipment to pursue studies in a photography school in the south of France. He worked as a photo assistant for Camilla Akrans and Bruno Aveillan, and then for Peter Lindbergh, with whom he has worked for more than six years now. In parallel he works on his personal projects including staged cinematic photo-stories, female nudes, as well as more commercial work.

His shoots are meticulously planned, but once on set he gives free reign to spontaneity and liberty. Thus the essential elements and the emotions coalesce, creating life.”

Room 42

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Society decides what is beautiful and what isn’t. Imperfections and flaws are discriminated against, and beauty is often measured using a set of criteria that leaves no room for variation.
For me, all of that raises questions and shows the importance that is given these days – or has always been given – to physical appearance and that eternal question: What is beauty?

ROOM 42 was born from these questions and a desire to bring together people that look unusual or ordinary – according to the normal criteria – in an imaginary world that could be representative of life. When they are all put in the same setting, each person’s story becomes unique and special.
I wanted to use this project to depict these characters and make people ask: who is this person? What is their life like? Do they have the same fear, joys, worries and dreams as me?

The world of ROOM 42, was constructed entirely from scratch out of a desire to demonstrate the beauty of these people that are marginalised in daily life, and to give them expression in an unconventional context.